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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27193516">in the darkness they climbed the wire</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/elouanwrites/pseuds/elouanwrites'>elouanwrites</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Sankalita Gardens Herd-ship [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Family Relationships - Freeform, Gen, I was asking for it, except for me, ithorian herdship, mention of past child abuse, no Jedi AU, no sith au, so I wrote it, the spaceship botanical garden au that no one was asking for, world-building</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 16:30:09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,467</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27193516</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/elouanwrites/pseuds/elouanwrites</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>He finally found a way to get himself and his brothers off of Dathomir and out from under their tyrannical mother's thumb. Now all he needs to do is keep said brothers out of sight of his new employers long enough to get well out of reach, while also keeping his new employers from realizing he lied on his resume and actually has no idea how to do his new job.</p>
<p>Piece of cake.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Sankalita Gardens Herd-ship [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1985119</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>57</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>in the darkness they climbed the wire</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><hr/>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Maul looked at his intake paperwork again, quadruple-checking his directions against the massive interactive map on the board in front of him. Level 3, corridor osk-9, room 27. Great. No problem. He could do this. An over-engineered, well organized Ithorian herd-ship designed from the ground up for public access couldn’t be more difficult to navigate than the trackless swamps of Dathomir, after all.</p>
<p>Ruthlessly repressing the urge to fidget with nerves, he looked back up at the map, carefully entering the location into the search bar. To his immense relief, the path to get there lit up a brilliant gold against the glowing blue of the map, and it didn’t look all that complicated. To the lifts, down two levels, take a left, take a right at osk-9, then just count the room numbers. Easy. No problem. None whatsoever. He glanced around, and seeing no eyes turned his way, stepped to the side of the map and lifted his com.</p>
<p>“I’m going to my intake meeting,” he said gruffly, putting every last ounce of confidence he could muster into his voice. “Take Feral to whatever gardens he wants to see, keep out of everyone’s way, and <em>don’t attract attention</em>.”</p>
<p><em>“Got it,”</em> came Savage’s calm voice through the com. <em>“Good luck, brother. We’ll keep a low profile, don’t worry.”</em></p>
<p>Maul breathed in deep, then slowly let it out and rested against the wall for a moment. He had a little bit of leeway on time, he could take a few seconds to release some of his tension. He already had the job, all he had to do was go sign the papers and get his orientation over with. They were off Dathomir for good. Even if his new employers found out he had brought his brothers with him, they probably wouldn’t throw them back off the herd-ship. He only requested a single occupant room anyway so they wouldn’t be taking up more space than he would alone. And his pay would definitely be enough to get rations to feed them as long as they pinched a little, so it wasn’t like he’d be using up more than his allotment of resources there either. It would be fine.</p>
<p>Everything was fine. It was just easier to ask forgiveness than permission, so he wouldn’t mention his two dependents until everything was settled. Or not even then. Maybe. Who knows, maybe no one would even notice. It was a very big ship.</p>
<p>Everything was going to be. <em>Fine.</em></p>
<p>He let himself have one more deep breath leaning against the wall, then set his jaw and headed towards the lifts. Fortunately all the floors and corridors were clearly marked, not only in basic but in a whole slew of other languages that he didn’t recognize. He passed a few people on his way, a startling range of beings after a lifetime seeing only other zabraks, but managed to keep his staring to a minimum at least. The toydarian was a bit of a shock though, seeing a tiny body actually <em>flying</em> down the corridor sending him skipping to the side out of the way, his heavy bag almost knocking him off balance and into the wall. The toydarian shouted an apology on their way past, but appeared to be in far too much of a hurry to stop.</p>
<p>Maul waved it off and kept walking, head up and scanning the room numbers, until he finally came to one with a big gold 27 on it. He paused, hefting the bag on his shoulder and taking a fortifying breath, then with a confidence he in no way felt he rapped his knuckles on the door.</p>
<p>There was no answer.</p>
<p>Maul frowned, checking his com for the time. Only a few minutes early. He glanced up and down the corridor, and seeing no one approaching, gave the door another, louder knock. Silence. He shifted on his feet, peering around the frame for any kind of switch or button that might open it, but saw nothing but smooth gray metal with a subtle gold striping in varying widths. He twitched, checking his intake form on his pad yet again. It still said level 3, corridor osk-9, room 27. He walked a ways back down the corridor until he was just barely able to make out the large gold “osk-9” painted on the wall, then back to the door and knocked again to no reply. He checked his com. Now three minutes past his appointment time. Just when he was starting to edge from frustration to anxiety, he heard the sound of running feet down the hallway.</p>
<p>“Oh <em>kark</em>,” chirped a high voice as a young togruta in a dark gray tunic and leggings with a bright gold sash scampered down the hall, their arms full to overflowing with datapads and flimsi. “I am <em>so sorry</em>, Master Fay told me when you were going to be here but I got sidetracked with my other duties and that’s no <em>excuse</em> oh force how unprofessional—”</p>
<p>“It’s fine,” Maul cut in, bemused and relieved in equal measure, stepping back from the door to allow them access. “I’ve only been here a few minutes, don’t worry about it.” One of the pads started to slide out of their arms and he reached out and tipped it back onto the pile, and they gave him a grateful look as they carefully edged one hand out from under the pile to wave at the door. It slid open with a soft hiss, and Maul blinked, startled.</p>
<p>“I didn’t see a motion sensor…” The togruta paused and gave him a baffled look, then widened their eyes in realization.</p>
<p>“Oh! The door! No, it’s my ring. We all have one, they’re bio-locked and coded to our access level,” they explained cheerfully, dumping the armful on the small table in the room. Maul followed them in, glancing around curiously, and let his bag slide off his shoulder next to the door.</p>
<p>It was a small room with pleasant, light green walls, warmly lit from the ceiling and furnished only with a small round table that looked like wood and a set of four matching backless chairs. There were hanging planters on every wall, a somewhat ridiculous number of them, each with a different type of foliage. On the table there was a small potted flower with soft pink petals and strangely fluffy blue leaves. With a huff of relief the now unburdened togruta flopped into one of the chairs, then immediately hopped back up with their lekku curling in what Maul hesitantly translated as embarrassment.</p>
<p>“Right! Sorry again, I am <em>so</em> bad at this,” they said with a grimace, the flash of a carnivore’s sharp teeth making Maul feel a little more at home. “My name is Ahsoka, she/hers, and I’m an intern here at Sankalita Gardens Herd-ship. Master Fay asked me to meet with you in her stead because there was an emergency in one of the insect habitats and she was the only master available to deal with it.” Maul nodded and took her offered hand, giving it a firm shake, then joined her at the small table.</p>
<p>“My name is Maul, uh...he/him?” he offered awkwardly. “Nice to meet you.” She beamed, rapidly flipping through the flimsiplast and shuffling the datapads into order, and handed him a whole stack and a pen.</p>
<p>“All right, here’s your contract!” she chirped, then settled back into her chair. “Let me know if you have any questions, I may or may not have the answers but if I don’t I can ask someone for you, no problem. Once you’ve looked it over and signed, I’ll go over the orientation information with you and get you set up for an employee account, then I can show you to your quarters. Sound good?” He nodded, slightly overwhelmed by her cheerful enthusiasm, and started flipping through the flimsi stack.</p>
<p>It looked to be the same information he’d already read over when he was offered the job, which was good. It didn’t take long for him to reach the end and sign. Setting up the employee account also wasn’t all that complicated, fortunately. He wasn’t completely unused to datapad usage, but he hadn’t been permitted to use them all that often back home, so anything overly complex still tripped him up occasionally. Eventually everything was complete, all lines signed with his name, all boxes filled out. Ahsoka shuffled the flimsi and the pads into a much neater pile than she’d started with, then hopped up to dig a small box out of her pocket and grabbed the top pad off the stack.</p>
<p>“Here’s your employee issue datapad, and here’s your access ring!” she said cheerfully, dropping the pad and the little box in Maul’s hands. He opened it to find a large, dull gray band of segmented metal with a single yellow light, much too large for his finger. He frowned slightly, giving Ahsoka a dubious look, but she just grinned back and waved her hand for him to put it on. He lifted the ring from the box and slid it onto his left middle finger. It hung loose for a moment, large enough for a finger twice his size, then he nearly jumped out of his skin as it suddenly contracted. He was half afraid for a moment that it would keep tightening until his finger came clean off, but it stopped when it was just snug enough to not fall. He gave a giggling Ahsoka a darkly unamused look, then turned it curiously, noting that the segments were much closer together, and the light had turned a pale green.</p>
<p>“Anyway!” she said suddenly, scooping up her pile of documents and electronics. “Time to get you to your new home so you can settle in!” He nodded sharply, grabbing his bag and throwing it over his shoulder. Out of curiousity, he waved his left hand at the door, and had to repress a grin as it promptly slid open. Waving the door closed again behind them he let Ahsoka precede him down the hall, listening to her cheerful chatter about the ship and the gardens with one ear as he carefully observed his surroundings and marked the path they were taking. He needed to be able to tell his brothers how to reach him later, after all.</p>
<p>It wasn’t long, only about five minutes at a brisk walk, before the corridor walls changed color to a soft blue instead of the unpainted gray metal. Small round tables with fluffy, comfortable looking gold chairs on either side were interspersed along the walls, a potted plant in the center of each table. Some of the doors had colorful name plates next to them with names in all manner of languages, though all of them were written out in aurebesh script. Eventually Ahsoka stopped in front of a door with a blank plate, and waved her hand towards it. It didn’t open.</p>
<p>“Home sweet home!” she said cheerily. “This door will only open for you or for the security team in case of emergencies, though you’re welcome to add other people to the access list.” He frowned in consternation, wondering how he would go about getting access rings for his brothers.</p>
<p>“Is a ring the only way to access the door? What if I lose it?” She blinked, confused, as though the idea that a ring might be lost had never occurred to her.</p>
<p>“Not that I’m aware of? The rings are self-sizing though, so you shouldn’t have any trouble in that regard. I can ask for you though if you like,” she offered, rocking on her heels and clutching her stack of documents. Maul shook his head with a frown, waving the door open himself.</p>
<p>“Don’t worry about it,” he muttered, leaning in to glance around the small room. “I’m sure it’ll be fine.”</p>
<p>“Okay well, if you don’t have any more questions I should get back to work…” She smiled hesitantly, lekku twisting under her chin. He glanced at them and shook his head, making a mental note to look up the body language of other species.</p>
<p>“No, I’m good,” he said absentmindedly, tossing his bag against the wall inside the room. “Just gonna settle in and get ready for tomorrow. Thanks, for the help,” he tacked on belatedly, giving her a quick close-mouthed smile. She returned it with a wave and bobbed into a short bow, then scampered off down the hall.</p>
<p>Maul waved the door closed again, turning to survey his and his brothers’ new home. It was actually a little larger than he’d expected, considering it was a low-ranking employee berthing on a ship, albeit a very large ship indeed. The room was probably as large as the one he shared with his brothers back on Dathomir, and it still had another two doors leading off it. There was a counter on the far side with a compact kitchen set-up that looked entirely sufficient to prepare a not too fancy meal. A decent sized entertainment screen dominated the left wall with a fluffy dark blue couch in front of it. Between the wall and the couch lay a thick cream colored rug with a low table sitting on it. To his right there was a small dining table with four stools tucked underneath, enough room for them to eat together comfortably. Through one of the doors was a fresher equipped with not just a sonic, but an actual water shower. The other had a small bunk room, just enough space for a comfortable-looking bed that might actually hold all three of them, and a small desk against the wall.</p>
<p>Maul took a moment to just...breathe. They really were free. No more Mother Talzin dragging them through life by the horns, dictating every aspect of their lives down to what they ate and when. No more threats of being married off to older women to increase their mother’s social standing. No more hissed insults, no more constant weight of disapproval that none of them had been born female, no more <em>punishments</em>. Mother Talzin had no standing outside of Dathomir, and none of them were significant enough assets that she’d likely bother to hire someone to bring them back.</p>
<p>All he had to do was keep his brothers out of sight until the herdship was far away from Dathomir, then even if he did get fired for sneaking them aboard they’d just be set down on some other planet and still be out of her reach forever. Just...keep Savage and Feral out of sight and taken care of, keep his head down, and hold down the position long enough to get a few systems away from their mother.</p>
<p><em>Everything was going to be fine</em>.</p>
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